We've Been Through This
by Animagus Anonymous
Summary: Gryffindor has won the Quidditch Cup! it seems like a perfect day but drama at the afterparty may ruin it for a certain werewolf. Read and review please! Written for the Golden Snitch forum's prompt of the day challenge.


**A/N: This story is written for The Golden Snitch forum's Prompt of the Day challenge! The 5 points should go to the Ilvermorny House of Horned Serpent, please! I hope you enjoy!**

 **Prompt: "Why did you invite_?"**

 **Word Count (not including A/N): 1,644**

It was a clear sunny day on June 2nd. If you looked from one of the many windows along Hogwarts' west wall, you would be able to see Hagrid tending to the pumpkin patch, with Fang bounding by his side. If you looked to the right, even closer, in the distance you would see a huge mass of scarlet making its way slowly but very, very loudly towards the castle. One person, a tall boy with jet black, extremely messy hair and hazel eyes with round glasses, in scarlet Gryffindor Quidditch robes with gold trimming was being hoisted above people's shoulders and was holding a large, glistening, golden cup in the air, shouting himself hoarse with joy. This boy was, of course James Potter and he was holding the Hogwarts Quidditch Cup.

In the middle of the crowd stood the star chaser's best friend, Sirius Black. He was a beater on the team, and was therefore granted a position closest to James, half under him as one of the ones carrying him. Towards the back of the crowd was a short, chubby blonde boy, next to a gangly, thin, tired-looking, sandy haired boy wearing a much-too-large sweater, both cheering as loud as they could. The blonde was, of course, Peter Pettigrew and the tall boy was Remus Lupin, James and Sirius' other two best friends. They were both cheering while simultaneously trying to push their way towards James and Sirius unsuccessfully.

Even though he was a second year like James, Sirius carried his best friend all the way to the Gryffindor common room. Once the Potter heir was set down, he and Sirius waved off the many fans ("We know, we know, you love us, but we have to get this party started," ; "we'll be back in a jiffy, don't worry, with food, yes I promise,") and snuck down to the dungeon leading to a painting of a bowl of fruit. James tickled the pear and it transformed into a doorknob, which he pulled open to reveal a huge kitchen. But instead of wizards and witches working at the stoves, there were hundreds of small, waist-high house elves.

They all turned to the door as it swung open with rapt attention and, once they saw who had entered, swarmed around the two second years, pressing platters into their hands with all of their combined force and chattering loudly on top of each other. The boys eventually managed to obtain large platters of all manners of cakes and desserts, along with five crates of butterbeer bottles, which they levitated back up to Gryffindor tower.

Their arrival was greeted with more shouts of joy than was coming from the tower already. Some sixth years conjured some large tables, where the food was set. Someone brought down their radio and music from the WWN (Wizarding Wireless Network) was blasted loudly. The chairs and desks were cleared from the middle of the room to create a dance floor and the party had officially started.

Naturally, the Quidditch team were in the center of the room and the center of attention. James and Sirius soaked it up easily and were having the best day of their lives.

After two songs, James asked Sirius, "Hey, where are Remus and Peter?" Sirius shrugged and kept dancing, but his grin had diminished a little.

Slowly, but steadily, as if they had heard their friend's question, the crowd parted a bit to reveal a sweaty and disgruntled Peter pulling a tired, but happy-looking Remus into the crowd by his arm.

"Where were you guys?" Sirius asked.

"I left my book at the stands!" Remus called back over the noise, holding up his copy of _Charm Development Through the Middle Ages_. Sirius rolled his eyes and pulled Remus right onto the center of the dance floor with the Quidditch team as James took Peter over to get food. "Sirius!" Remus cried indignantly.

"Come on Remus, it's a party! You have to dance! Forget your book!" He said, banishing it to their dorm with a wave of his wand. "Tonight, you have to have fun! I demand it!"

"I don't dance, Sirius. Please, I'm tired," He shrugged off Sirius' hand from his shoulder. "I've been _sick_ for the past few days," he said, lowering his voice and emphasizing "sick" to indicate his lycanthropy; Sirius could be a little oblivious sometimes.

As James and Peter returned, Sirius was about to respond, no doubt to tell him to stay at least five more minutes, when a deep, thuggish voice cut in, "Hey, who's this wimp? He's not on the team!"

Another similar voice said, "Yeah, and who's the fatass next to James?"

Two boys, the keeper and another chaser were pointing at Remus and Sirius and jeering.

Sirius found the source of the voices and pushed his way towards them, still towing Remus along with him. James followed with a reluctant and scared-looking Peter. "Their _names_ are Remus and Peter! You got a problem with them, huh?" Sirius spat in their faces.

The keeper retorted, "You bring them here?" Sirius and James nodded. "Why did you invite them?"

" _Remus_ and _Peter_." James snarled.

"Fine, fine, why did you invite _Remus_ and _Peter_ then?"

"Because they're our friends. Our _best_ friends!" Sirius added hotly.

The chaser snorted. "Your best friends are a butterball who eats all day and is practically a Squib," (he paused to snicker even more) "-and an anorexic little bookworm who's probably a fa-"

He was cut off by Sirius' square punch to his jaw. "Shut up!" James roared. "You don't know what you're talking about!"

Sirius attempted to kick the chaser, but got blasted away with a hex from the keeper, as did James. They were knocked back into the sea of people, who had stopped partying and had been watching the impending fight with keen interest, ignoring the music still loudly blaring from the radio. Peter was still cowering to the side of the clearing that the Quidditch players had been fighting in.

Sirius got up and was ready to have another go at the other players, but James held onto his shoulder and pointed to the portrait hole, where they could see Remus with his oversized sweater slinking out of the common room with his head bent down.

Sirius began to push people out of the way to follow the werewolf while James fetched Peter with a withering glare at his teammates.

Sirius had just made his way out of the portrait hole when Remus was at the end of the hallway, walking quickly and about to round the corner.

"Remus! Remus, come back! We took care of those guys, you don't have to worry about them anymore! Remus!" Remus either hadn't heard him, or was ignoring him, which was probably the case since Sirius was a very loud person.

Sirius took off in pursuit, which just made Remus walk faster. "Remus, where are you going?" No answer. "Come back to the party, we won't let those guys bother you!" Nothing.

"Merlin's saggy bollocks, Remus, talk to me!" Sirius had finally caught up to him. He put a hand on the boy's shoulder, spun him around to face him and stared in shock. Silent tears were cascading down Remus' face.

"Why are you following me? I just want to be alone," he whispered.

"What do mean why am I following you? I needed to make sure you were okay. And clearly, you're not." Remus opened his mouth to reply, bue Sirius interjected, "And I'm not leaving until you tell me exactly why you're upset."

Remus paused, knowing that Sirius would make good on his promise. Finally, he gave up and whispered, "You heard what they said back there, Sirius. They're right. Why would you guys want to be friends with me? You and James are Quidditch stars and you're popular and loud and funny and I'm…..me."

"What do you mean you're you? Of course you are," Sirius said, bewildered.

"What I _mean_ ," Remus said. "Is that I-we don't have anything in common. I'm bookish and quiet and no one really likes me, and, and, and, I'm a _werewolf_ , for Merlin's sake, Sirius! Don't you see why you shouldn't want to be friends with me?"

"You don't want us to be friends with you?" Sirius asked.

"No!" Remus' head shot up. "No, I do, I really like being friends with you guys. Um, it's just-"

"Well, I don't see why there's a problem, then, Moony," Remus looked at Sirius in astonishment. "You want to be friends with us, we want to be friends with you, so it's settled! We're friends!"

"You…. don't care that I'm a werewolf? And what about James and Peter?"

Sirius sighed. "I thought we'd been through this in February, Moony. No, we don't care that you're a werewolf. _I_ actually think it's really cool."

"Trust me, it's not."

Sirius waved him off, back to his cheerful self. "And as for James and Peter, I know they don't care."

"He's right; we don't," said a familiar voice from down the hallway. The two boys turned to find James and Peter, sweaty and out of breath at the corner. "Sweet Merlin, could you guys have found a harder place to find?" James asked.

"And no, Remus, we don't care. Do we, James?" Peter said, prodding James in the back.

"What? Oh, yeah, Remus we've been over this. We don't think that being a werewolf makes you any less Remus."

"Alright Moony?" Sirius asked. "Right, let's get you back to the common room so we can kick thei-"

"Moony?" James asked.

Sirius colored. "Oh, yeah, well I thought Remus needed a nickname and well, Moony seemed to fit?" he asked.

"That is _so_ obvious," Remus wiped his tears away. "But I could get used to it," he said with a grin.


End file.
